Democrats on Tuesday night kept their majority in the Colorado Senate, maintaining such a solid lead throughout the evening in two of four races critical for control of the chamber that Republicans admitted they couldn't retake it.

In the Senate, 18 seats constitute a majority, and Democrats now hold a 20-15 advantage. Twenty Senate seats were up in the election, but eyes were focused primarily just on a quartet of races, three of them in the Denver suburbs. The rest of the races were so lopsided, the outcome wasn't in doubt.

After legislative redistricting last year, under the new maps, Republicans would have had to win all four contested races to gain the majority.

But by late Tuesday, it appeared the Democrats had all but locked up at least two of the seats.

In Senate District 26
, Democratic state Sen. Linda Newell, a conflict resolution specialist from Littleton, appeared to be holding onto the Arapahoe County seat that she won by just 195 votes in 2008. She faced Republican Dave Kerber, a former Greenwood Village city councilman, former chairman of the Arapahoe County Republican Party and a co-owner of a small business.

Mailers in the race hit Newell over tax liens filed against her in the 1990s for back taxes she owed, and they accused Kerber of wanting to limit women's access to mammograms.

Newell was leading with 52.7 percent to Kerber's 47.2 percent, a 3,016-vote lead.

Advertisement

Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, a key organizer in the effort to retain the Democratic majority, said there was no way Kerber could make up the difference.

Cadman agreed.

"From what we've seen that one's done," he said of the race. "Obviously, we thought we had a real shot at that. We can take a little bit of comfort in the fact that we at least maintained the number (15 seats) we had."

In Senate District 22, an open seat in Jefferson County, Democrat Andy Kerr was holding on to an early advantage over Republican Ken Summers.

Returns showed Kerr with 52 percent of the vote to Summers' 47.9 percent, with Kerr having a 2,676-vote lead, another lead Carroll and Cadman agreed would be difficult for Republicans to overtake.

Both are lawmakers in the state House, and both are from Lakewood.

Kerr was blasted for being the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights while attack mailers tried to paint Summers as an extremist for supporting the so-called "Personhood" amendment.

Republicans appeared to be holding a lead on one seat.

In Senate District 35, a seat that sprawls across 16 counties in southern Colorado from the Kansas border to the San Juan Mountains, Republican rancher Larry Crowder was leading Democrat Crestina Martinez, a Costilla County commissioner. Crowder with 49.4 percent to Martinez's 46.9 percent. Libertarian William Bartley had 3.6 percent.

Martinez was accused of being soft on gun rights issues and beat up over a $400 contribution she took from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Crowder, meanwhile, was hammered for his support for a personhood amendment to the state constitution and blasted as a supporter of the Ryan budget.

One race still too close to call was in Senate District 19, where Jefferson County incumbent Democrat Evie Hudak of Westminster, a former teacher, had a razor-thin lead over Republican challenger Lang Sias of Arvada, a commercial pilot and Air National Guard officer.

Hudak was leading Sias 46.8 percent to 46.7 percent, or a margin of just 75 votes. Libertarian Lloyd Sweeny had 6.3 percent of the vote.

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.